My chaotic wanderings through creation and restoration.
One of my habits is to collect small damaged items, and then hoard them like the bizarre little goblin that I am until I feel knowledgeable enough to attept to repair them. This is one of those stories. -Law & Order BLNK BLNK- Over the last few days, after tackling an entire iko (kimono stand), … Continue reading Antique Kougai Repair
I took a step back after every piece of hardware was fitted, everything was right, tight, and anything that was mobile was moving as it was supposed to be. Is there anything else? Did I miss something? Did a shitty paintbrush drop a hair in the varnish again? Did I accidentally scratch the surface again … Continue reading Taisho Era Kyodai–Restoration Complete
I'm currently in a state of limbo with several projects where I'm either waiting for something to dry, waiting on materials, or it's just a big project and I'm spending a few hours a week on it and it'll be done when it's done. Fight me. But since I am not currently out of space, … Continue reading Restoration In Progress–Antique Small Tansu
Can you just feel the confidence spewing from me in that title? Well, I'm honest if nothing else. What I do know about this thing is that it's big, it's amazing, it's beautiful, it needs repaired, and that I absolutely had to have it. What I don't know about it is...well, just what in the … Continue reading Restoration in Progess–What Even Is This?
As I mentioned in my post about resizing haori, I was handed the opportunity to create another tutorial about patching a hole. Since that haori was decidedly sewn together by a...crazy person...originally, it led to some damage that I had to repair on the fabric as I removed the stitches. I'm not going to go … Continue reading Tutorial–Patching A Hole
Today I received this absolutely delightful wood temple model that was a bit dirty and in need of some gentle repairs. It came to me in a few pieces, but the pieces are whole, and the areas they separated are just where the glue has failed. Now, I realise I don't know a whole fuck … Continue reading Lazy Saturday Afternoon Restoration
Alright, buckle up, nerds. I've been driving myself absolutely insane on getting satisfactory images and video to use in this tutorial for the better part of a month now, and I gotta tell you, I absolutely suck at taking video of things I'm doing with a tripod. In the end, I had to check with … Continue reading Tutorial–Couching Repairs
Vibrant Bamboo Leaves On Beautiful Teal Silk With Woven Gold Threads. Here's another piece that qualifies as a restoration that I never bothered to keep any records on. It's actually pretty safe to say that most of my older kimono qualify as that in one way or another. I usually have to clean something, remove … Continue reading Taisho Haori–Bamboo Explosion
I'm making lots of great progress on this piece, gifted to me for restoration by Nancy from Kyoto Kimono. As predicted, most of my work is sewing. I had to wait for awhile to get the proper weight and color for threads in to get started, but now that they're here, things are going very … Continue reading Update: Restoration In Progress–Castles And Dreams
I have been asked a few dozen times over the years by various individuals, usually in good faith, why my lily-white ass is so interested in kimono and such. It's usually people that don't know me very well that ask that question, because if they did then they know that I'm a goddamn artist and … Continue reading Restoration In Progress–The Elephant In The Obutsudan
Silk & Bones 